Cygnus arrives at the ISS for Orb 1 mission

It made it! The Cygnus space freighter that launched last week from Wallops Island berthed with the International Space Station early Sunday.

It's the first operational resupply mission for Orbital Sciences Corp, based in Dulles, which plans to launch seven more out of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore.

Orbital has a $1.9 billion NASA commercial resupply contract into 2016, and developed the Cygnus and the medium-lift Antares rocket specifically for the job. When they launch, Hampton Roads always has a front-row seat - weather permitting.

Astronauts grappled the Cygnus at 6:08 a.m. Sunday, NASA says, and now the crew of the orbiting science lab is unloading nearly 2,800 pounds of payload -- groceries, spare parts, hardware and dozens of science experiments.

The Cygnus is set to return in February, loaded with disposable cargo, to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.